This book was published as the monograph to a traveling national exhibition on William Christenberry which was curated by the Center for Creative Photography's curator of photography, Trudy Wilner Stack, back in 1996. It is a splendid introduction to Christenberry's work. Through his photography, sculpture and painting, Christenberry has explored the South's rural manmade landscape and its tortured psychological landscape, focusing in on the Ku Klux Klan. Working in color, Christenberry comes across as a latter day Walker Evans, showing much empathy and respect for the culture he depicts in his photographs, with, of course, a notable exception for the Ku Klux Klan. Anyone interested in seeing a fine introduction to Christenberry's work should look no further.

As unique and genuine an artist as America has produced, Christenberry receives admirable attention in this work. The depth and breadth of his talent is showcased, with attention paid to all of the mediums he employs: painting, sculpture, and photography. Southerners will especially appreciate the evocative quality that rings through these pieces, but their appeal is not limited to art enthusiasts from that region alone. The gravity of the work has a wide appeal.

A visual treat. The artist has captured the look and feel of rural Alabama. Whether it is a photograph, assemblage, painting or drawing, there is a basic truth and honesty to these works.They evoke the time from the depression to the present in a haunting and beautiful way. Mr, Christenberry is indeed a poet.

Carter Allen's photo documentary is excellent. It renews our faith in the true existence of the American cowboy, working and living not too differently than his predecessors did in the early days of the West. The depth of tradition captured in these photographs and verbalized in Dodie Allen's brief biographies makes us pause to say a little prayer that this endangered species and way of life, too, can be preserved.

The photographs of Carter Allen are so sensitive and life-like, you feel right away a friendship with the people who are further made real through the easy-to-read and warm portrayal offered by Dodie Allen. The "cowboys" are an important part of our nations history and still play an important role in todays culture. They should never be forgotten and this book helps us realize that. It's a book the whole family can enjoy and share. It acts as a catalyst to learn more about the cowboys...past and present. I highly recommend it. JeriMcDonald

The photography is exquisite, capturing not only the beauty of the landscape in Santa Cruz County, but the "beauty of the landscape" in the faces of the "cowboys/cowgirls" that are truly a part of the land. The photography is enhanced through the short prose about each subject, adding the depth and color to create a 3-dimensional view of characters that thrived in a time that is quickly vanishing from our culture--true American icons. I have visited the Santa Cruz County area, and much of Arizona, and found this book provides insight to the "cowboy" lifestyle, with beautiful reminders of things I have been fortunate enough to see. I have given this book as gifts to others, some who have been to Arizona, and others who have not--the all have loved the "experience" of being there as they've read their books. "Gooch", "Cotton" and Kate have become quick favorites, and the "Huachuca Cowboys" represent a lifestyle that some of us surely long for. . .

The third installment of Living Voices of the Past is another wonderful history lesson!

Hilda Faunce leaves her comfortable Seattle, Washington, home to journey to the Southwest and the Navajo reservation with her husband in 1914. While one may think that everybody had cars back then, the Faunce's made their way in the manner of the original pioneers: by wagon.

Hilda's journey is not so much a journal of her trip as it is her life on the reservation between 1914 and 1918. Hilda's writings are indeed an historical eye-opener.

First, there is the problem with the language; then the protocol; and the normal daily variances of two races trying to live side-by-side. Cultural diversity may be a late-twentieth-century term, but the fact is that many in America were already experiencing this phenomenon.

The entire journal is mesmerizing; Hilda uses very descriptive language to convey the sights and sounds of the unusual customs and landscapes that she encounters that transfers the listener to reservation life during the second decade of the twentieth century.

Two aspects were particularly telling of a different culture: contending with a white-man initiated illness and the onset of World War I.

The Navajo's were forced to face and contend with small pox, a deadly disease they had never known until the white man arrived. Many of Hilda's new friends died, devastating the young woman.

Newspapers were a rarity and treat on the reservation, so Hilda did not know much of what was going on outside her and her husband's little trading post. While the world was trying to blow itself to smithereens, the Faunce's and the Indians were trying to make a living by mainly trading...especially furs and foods.

Desert Wife is an important historical document that from which we can all learn tolerance and the need to just get along!

Ably narrated by Jane Merrifield-Beecher, Desert Wife is the story of Hilda Faunce and her life as a trader's wife on the Navajo reservation before the outbreak of World War I. Hilda faced challenging experiences as she came from Seattle, Washington to live in the bleakness of the southwest desert, learning the Navajo language, and acclimating to an alien territory and a strange new world. Hilda presents the interaction between Navajos and whites in their trading practices and how the Navajo coped with sicknesses transmitted from the white man. She touches on the sweetness of Navajo singing, the misconception of war when they had to register at For Defiance, and a great deal more. Desert Wife is the product of Hilda's four years of reservation life and learning to appreciate the cultural differences between the Navajo world and her own background. Desert Wife is highly recommended listening for students of Native American studies, the twentieth century American west, and Women's studies.

As an avid reader of first-person accounts of the lives of women in the early West, I would call this one of the finest I've seen. It's an absorbing tale of a woman's adjustment to the bleak and initially terrifying emptiness of the desert Southwest where her husband sets up an Indian trading post at the time of World War I. She comes to love the place and to appreciate the culture and manners of her Indian neighbors, which at first seem so alien to her. Hilda Faunce gives us a fascinating direct view of the interaction of Indians and whites, which is only the more interesting from our current vantage point 85 years later. I was struck by her simple, straightforward, but eloquent writing style as well as by her courage and receptiveness in facing a very challenging experience. I felt as if I'd entered her world, and was sorry to leave when the book was over.

For those who loved Gap Creek and Cold Mountain, do I have a book for you. This story of a pioneer woman in the southwest is gritty and real-to-the-bone. Feel assured as you enjoy this engaging story that it is not fanciful: families on the frontier lived this way and faced these challenges. "Filaree" is a very worthwhile way to spend your evening.

We all love Marguerite in this part of Arizona. She always has a hug and a big smile for everyone. She lived a rough life on the Arizona frontier but it polished her into a living pearl. Her book tells it like it was. Filaree is FACTION, not fiction. It's required reading in this country.

I knew Margarite from when I was a child because some of the characters are my Family. I grew up meeting a lot of these people and getting to know my history Margarite was a great writer and the story is almost true to life from the stories that I heard. Margarite was a great person and friend to the family up until My grandparents passed away. Please read it will give the insight of what life was like for these people so rich in the land and the ranchers that worked in Arizona and the women who stood by their men working and working side by side on the saddle raising children like my great grandmother.

yeah, that's right. if i only knew about this before i Voted things woulda been different. i wouldn't have Voted. i would have stayed home and read this Damn Book. it's good, man. tell the people at the Voting place not to miss me next time, cuz i'll probably reading anudder one of these Books. because i like them. word to the factions of readers who dig the everett. word to them. word indeed.

This novel convinces me, were I in need of convincing, that Percival Everett is the most devious, unscrupulpous, and altogether brilliant writer of comedy in America. Hell, he'sprobably the best writer of anything.

This is an immensely enjoyable read. Once I cut it open, I could not put it down. Everett's main character, Rhino Tanner, is so detestable, you end up actually accepting him simply because he revels in his own distorted and destructive ideas. 'Comedy with fangs'? I totally agree.

I thought I knew a lot about the natural history of the Sonoran Desert until I read this book. As a longtime former Arizona resident I spent many hundreds of hours hiking the Sonoran Desert backcountry, often with the author himself. There's not much text in this book, but Conrad has packed it with interesting facts. And Donna Atwood's illustrations are both technically accurate and artistically pleasing. I wish they made coloring books like this when I was a kid.

I love this book! The descriptions are really good, and the illustrations are incredible. My daughter is drawn to its pictures and we're able to use it like flashcards to identify animals here in the Southwest. To call it a coloring book is an injustice. Teachers should use this book in their classroom.

What a delightful find. My grandchild adores this book. The artwork is magnificent.The alphabet a hidden treasure for younger children and the information about the animal and plant life was way beyond what I had expected.I learned a lot about the Sonoran Desert. THIS IS NO ORDINARY COLORING BOOK.

I am not an Arizona resident, so I only have the oportunity to hike there every now and then. This book has helped me to find some of the nicer spots, and go on those hikes well prepared. Maps are pretty good (although it seems that one of them was a little off in scale... not sure though... the textual description was extremely accurate).

The book is beatifully illustrated, and well written. A must-have for hiking enthusiasts.

Arizona is a great state to hike. Even without the magnificent hikes in and around the Grand Canyon, there are plenty of other trails to explore and enjoy. This book does it all! It is an exceptionally well-designed book for hikers across the spectrum. Whether you're a neophyte or have climbed Denali, this book contains all the essential information you need to tackle the hikes listed. The photos are all in color and are breathtaking! You really get a sense of what each hike will look like before you undertake it. Every hike also has a color map to accompany the text description. The maps are easy to follow and instructive.

Equally pleasing is that the authors take the time to describe each hike in extensive detail, though they are never wordy. They list the elevation gains, give succinct but necessary directions to each trailhead and provide ample analysis of the strengths/weaknesses of each trek. The book is small and light enough to carry in your backpack, if you feel the need to consult it while on the trail.

I have over 50 hiking books in my library and it would be hard to imagine a more complete, more photographically stunning or better written guide. I enthusiastically recommend this gem!

This book is printed on good quality paper. The color pictures and hike descriptions give the reader a feel for the terrain. Since I live on the east coast my time out West is limited to seven to ten day vacations. With so many things one can see and do on a vacation in Arizona, choosing is difficult. This book helped me cherry pick the hikes. A state map of Arizona
in the front of the book shows the location of all 100 hikes, so you know what hikes are available for any part of the state.

Having lived around the boneyard for a number of years this book helped me remember some of it. My father would and still passes by alot of the airplanes today on his way to work or what ever. It was interesting to read it from an Englishman's point of view.

This is a worthy successor to Philip D. Chinnery's previous pictorial essays on the Boneyard (1987's "Desert Boneyard", and 1989's "Desert Airforce"...both out-of-print). The format is larger, and the quality of the photos is excellent. There's also a tantalizing mix of aircraft...you can hardly wait to turn the page and see what glorious old bird is baking in the hot desert sun on the next page. You really get a feel for the place, and you see more on these pages than you'd ever get to see in real life; mostly because the tours don't take you everywhere Chinnery was able to go. You'll see F-105s, F-102s, F-100s, F-4s, A-7s, F-111s, B-52s, even A-10s, C-141s, F-14s, F-15s and F-16s. Plus other, much older aircraft, helicopters, utility aircraft and aircraft types too numerous to mention. There's a fine section on the early history of the base, and descriptions of the storage process, too. I think you'll like it.

This book has much detailed information on the history of the storage yard at Davis-Monthan AFB, in Tucson Arizona. Seeing has to how I am an aircraft nut (Mostly military), I got a kick out of the fact that all the pictures were color! And the photos are almost all of aircraft. Rare aircraft included are the XB-19, B-36, RA-5C, C-133 and the NB-52E. The only problem is that just one photo of each of the above aircraft is in the book. In addition, the book also has details about how the aircraft are preserved in storage and what uses they have at the yard. Not all are scrapped or salvaged of parts, but some go on to civilian lives as firebombers or transports and some are sold to warbird collectors. For example, The Pima Air-Space Museum has many aircraft that are on loan from D-M (Then again, it is very near the base). This has to be the best book ever on the place that is mistakenly called "The Boneyard".

Paul Stillwell's "Battleship Arizona" is a fine work devoted to the "life and death" of the ship which became the icon of Pearl Harbor.

The volume is particularly impressive and valuable for its extensive photo documentation and its stories of life and duty aboard the Arizona from keel-laying to partial scrapping and memorial construction. For those interested in the "human side" of the story, these tales are right up their alley. For those interested in the ship's configuration the photographs are remarkable. Some are also extraordinarily artistic, such as one showing a sortie under the incomplete Golden Gate Bridge.

The details provided regarding the ship's loss are also particularly good. Especially impressive are De Virgilio's elevation of the wreck immediately post attack and his overhead plot of the bomb hits and misses upon the Arizona and the Vestal.

The only real disappointment is the lack of a detailed "anatomy" of the ship in the form of deck plans, level by level within the ship, as completed and as modernized in the early 1930s. Provision of such drawings, and an accompanying discussion using them might have shed useful light on some of the theories regarding exactly how Arizona's magazines were detonated by the bomb hit forward.

The technical details offered in the text, and recorded in the appendices are superb, and I was particularly impressed by the references to and correction of minor errors in another respected publication recorded therein.

As a reader who could generally care less for the "human" side of the story with respect to warship histories, being far more concerned with design, construction and operation, I am nonetheless considering purchasing this volume for my own collection. It's that good.

To many of us, our knowledge of the Arizona begins and ends at Pearl Harbor. The book not only brings alive the rich history of the ship during her 25 years of service, but provides a wealth of information about Navy life between the world wars. The rare pictures of the ship and her crew also bring one closer to the Arizona experience as no other single source can.

Very good book, gives you insight as to life on the Arizona from the time of her beginning until its ultimate demise. A must for any Naval Historian

Private Detective Lena Jones helps rescue a 13-year old girl from her non-custodial father and the man the father has promised his daughter in marriage to. But when the prospective groom, a 'prophet' in a polygamous Mormon sect, ends up killed, Jones's client is the only suspect. And Jones knows that that local sheriff won't go looking for any other suspects. He appears to sympathise with the polygamous rather than with the abused children. Jones knows what it is like to be a deserted child and goes underground in the cult compound, pretending to be one of the wives.

Author Betty Webb writes about the evils of polygamy and child abuse with authority while fully integrating these into an intriguing mystery. The prophet made plenty of enemies and had enough money to make even his best friend want to murder him. But who would he have trusted enough to lend his own shotgun to? Jones finds that the code of silence is in effect in the compound. The men barely talk to the women, and the women live in fear of more abuse, and in fear of one another as they scrabble for what little authority any woman can hold in a male dominated sect.

Serious mystery readers will quickly guess the killer, but will want to keep reading to see how Jones finally guesses the identity. Jones' terrible taste in men makes me glad she's not my detective, but it also makes for a more interesting read.

In this timely second outing, gutsy PI Lena Jones, veteran of a hard-knocks childhood, can't bear to leave 13-year-old Rebecca to her fate - latest wife to the elderly Prophet of polygamous Purity, Utah, a hardscrabble compound in the middle of nowhere. Rescuing the girl (her father wants to trade her for two 16-year-olds), Lena all but stumbles over the body of the Prophet. Inevitably, Rebecca's mother is arrested for the murder.

All pretty straightforward so far, but Webb ("Desert Noir") takes a turn into the all-too-real surreal as Lena, determined to find the murderer, infiltrates the community by posing as a polygamist wife. In absorbing detail, Webb sets out the daily minutiae, the religious tenets (the more children, the better heaven), domestic routines, casual brutality, and the abject position of women, whose daily humiliation and powerlessness (including the offloading of widows onto other husbands) stacks up as nothing against the monstrous secret Lena finally uncovers.

Webb's writing is lively, well-paced and suspenseful. Dark humor accentuates the bleak setting. An afterward gives the background on Mormon polygamy and the state of law-enforcement disinterest. Powerful stuff.

Betty Webb has created a character who will keep you coming back for more. Lena's own tragic past is woven through every case she takes and every relationship she has. DESERT WIVES brings us a little closer to the truth - but there are still mysteries to unlock. Not only inside Lena, but also in the tightly written, suspenseful plots so masterfully delivered by this author. This is a compelling novel that I just couldn't put down. The subject matter is even more disturbing because of its awful reality.

Last year, DESERT NOIR, made my Top Ten list. This year, DESERT WIVES makes the list again. Keep 'em coming, Betty!

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